Tanzania CSOs’ GCAP/MDGs Campaign Coalition Update

Tanzania CSOs’ GCAP/MDGs Campaign Coalition Update
for the month of May 2005

Dear all,

The CSOs’ GCAP/MDGs Campaign Coalition in Tanzania is now at 50 and growing daily. TANGO is continuing to serve as the secretariat.

WLAC / Sustainability Watch project participated in a meeting in Canada and a few others in a “African Women with MDGs” meeting convened by AWOMI in Nairobi recently. Back home, Sustainability Watch Campaign and TENMET were busy planning for events / activities that take place this month (June 2005) and beyond. Soon we will be in a position to share and circulate widely the information/reports once they become available.

Coordination and financial update
A democratic process of electing a Steering Committee for the Campaign is underway and in its final stages. The SC is scheduled to hold its first meeting on 20th June 2005.

Among the duties, roles and responsibilities of the SC include:
• Approving and become the final authority regarding campaign proposals, implementation of activities, use of coalition funds and may from time to time delegate authority to working groups when necessary;
• Offer policy direction to the campaign, become the campaign’s spokesperson(s) and help create linkage between the campaign and interested stakeholders / alliances;
• Support the campaign secretariat in fundraising and other operational support that may be required from time to time; and
• Animate, motivate and seek the active participation / support of existing and potential coalition members

Funding? Not yet … the long-awaited funds from UN Millennium Campaign but not too long from now I guess! The local financial support for coordinator’s salary and related admin costs dried up – end of May 2005. NOVIB have informed us that they are aware of the current processes going on in terms of putting in place a structure for the coalition. Hopefully, with the proposed Steering Committee in place the question of adequately funding the campaign shall become the least of our worries.

Campaign’s guiding policy
Following on with our theme of Acha Mizengwe discussions took place to identify a unifying vision of the campaign. A unifying theme around: Every Tanzanian has the right to better social services was tentatively adopted. A draft of the policy guideline has been widely circulated (please let me know if you have not received any) for further inputs and adoption.

Within it a proposal has also been put forward to narrow the focus to three thematic areas from the previous/agreed five as follows:
• Education – linked to goal number 2 & 3 of the MDGs
• Health – goals number 4 through 7 of the Millennium Declaration
• Governance & Accountability – goal number 1 and 8

We are still receiving comments kindly please share yours to collectively share and own the contents of the policy guidelines.

Campaign activities
An MDGs awareness workshop for district/regional NGO networks was held in Iringa on 28th May 2005. The workshop is part of a project to build the capacity of civil society organisations at sub-national level to effectively engage with PRS/MDG process. The project - co-funded by UNDP and SNV - is jointly being implemented by TANGO and ALAT with close cooperation by partner agencies. Main recommendations and issues emanating from the Iringa workshop will be shared as soon as possible.

Get involved! Once again we expect the ideas and proposals to hold events / activities to be undertaken or supported by the coalition to come from you - the members. If you are organizing an event / activity or planning to, please let us know. Together we achieve more!

Some of the planned events are:
• Throughout 2005-Media advocacy
• June-July-Advocacy meetings with government and international embassies prior to AU/G8 meetings
• June –September-Input to government report to the UN Millennium Summit
• July 2005-Women’s dialogue / testimonials with Presidential nominees and members of parliament
• September 6-9-Gender festival that will be organized by TGNP that could help us by offering the continuity towards our launch date
• September 10, 2005-Campaign launch (tentative date)
• Film festival (date to be announced)
• Petition signing (date to be announced)
• Public forum with government officials (date to be announced).
Do you want to help/support? Are you organizing other activities related to GCAP/MDGs? Let us know!

Working Groups
Urgently looking for members! Do you want to be part of making things happen? We have three working groups in formation: media, popular mobilization and advocacy.

Apart from the media team that has taken some physical shape the popular mobilization working group is also in place. Deus Kibamba of TGNP has agreed to lead the group and you might have read a message from him through this mailing list a few hours ago. The popular mobilization group will hold its first meeting on Thursday next week, 9th June 2005 at TGNP, Mabibo Dar es Salaam.

Zaa Twalangete of TANGO, James Sangoro and Jamillah Mwanjisi of PACT Tanzania have also joined the media working group to provide the much needed advertising expertise.

There is still plenty of space / opportunity to join any of the above groups. So if you are interested please let me know.

The third group on advocacy is yet to be formed. Ms. Pamela Young of OXFAM GB has volunteered and is temporarily scouting for possible members to form the working group. The advocacy group will be needed to lobby the government and international donors.

We will be working with leaders of the various sectoral areas to further define how to take this work forward without duplication of efforts. So if your organization is involved in one of the areas let us know!

NGUNGA TEPANI
Tanzania CSOs’ GCAP/MDGs Campaign Coordinator
Tel: +255-22-2774581/2
Cell: +255-748-286507
Email: [email protected]